Apple Watch Ultra 4 Review: The smartwatch for the health-conscious

This is going to be a review in progress. The reason is simple: the new Apple Watch Ultra 4, unveiled last week and launching properly tomorrow, touts numerous new features that won’t be available until later this year (if you’re in Europe, the timeline is unknown).

Apple provided me with a review unit of the new Ultra 4, and all I could do was focus on what was there. The highlights: longer battery life (huge!) and a new heart rate monitoring system, which Apple says is best in the business.

First, the specs:

• Case: Titanium

• Colors: Natural or Black

• Case size: 49mm

• Display resolution: 422×514 pixels, 1,245 square mm display area

• Display brightness: Up to 3,000 nits peak brightness, 1 nit minimum brightness

• Display type: Wide-angle OLED and LTPO3

• Chip: S11 with a 4-core Neural Engine, W3 wireless chip

• Storage: 64GB

• Connectivity: GPS, Cellular (5G and LTE), WiFi4, Bluetooth 5.3, satellite connectivity, second-gen Ultra Wideband chip

• Battery life: up to 50 hours of normal use, up to 84 hours in Low Power Mode

• Charging: Up to 80 percent charge in about 45 minutes

• Durability: Water resistance 100m, recreational scuba diving to 40m, dust resistance IP6X, tested to MIL-STD 810H standard

• Special features: Second-generation electrical heart sensor, always-on optical heart sensor

So what’s new here?

If you take a closer look at those specs and compare them to the Ultra Watch 3, you’ll see they’re almost identical, with the only differences being the new chip, better battery life, and the second-gen heart-monitoring system. That’s right: Even the colors are the same as last year and boil down to Natural Titanium or Black Titanium (my unit was of the Natural Titanium variety).

This is the rare gadget where I don’t really mind the lack of visual updates. The Apple Watch Ultra has looked pretty much the same since the first version, but it looks rugged, powerful, and mighty, with a beautiful display that puts most other smartwatches to shame. I wouldn’t mind a new case color just for variety’s sake, but the design is (still) great.

It does, however, mean that I have little to report on display size, brightness, or basic functionality. It’s all the same as last year’s version.

As for new watch faces, Apple’s new watchOS 27 (which is what my unit is running) brings only one: Siri Modular. It’s available for both the Series 12 and Ultra 4, but thanks to the Ultra 4’s larger display, it has an additional bezel and a different (optional) Ultra font.

The new trick Siri Modular does is dynamically change the center complication to display whatever the top Smart Stack widget is at the moment. Turn the Watch’s crown, and that widget will start rotating between the other widgets in your smart stack.

While the new Siri Modular face is a cool addition, I do regret that Apple didn’t add additional new faces with the launch of the Watch Ultra 4. While its physical design remains the same, new watch faces are the easiest way to make the watch feel fresh.

One fresh thing is the wide range of bands on offer. Apple added numerous new versions across all of its band types, including Sport Band, Sport Loop, Nike Sport Band, and Hermes. Apple sent me a few to try out; by far my favorite was the new Translucent Gray Ocean Band, which is a perfect match for the Apple Watch Ultra 4’s Natural Titanium color.

Battery life fit for athletes

The Apple Watch Ultra has always been advertised as a watch for athletes and adventurers, but the first couple of iterations just didn’t have the battery life to match that claim. Now, with the Apple Watch Ultra 4, Apple says the battery will last up to 50 hours in normal use, up to 84 hours in Low Power Mode, and up to 18 hours in outdoor workout mode.

This should now be enough to finish an Ironman race, which is pretty much all you can ask of any sports watch. I haven’t tried that and have no plans to, but I did take the Watch for an hour-long workout that included some calisthenics and bag work. The watch was fully charged that morning, and by evening it still had 81 percent battery remaining.

Overall, I had to charge the Watch roughly every third day, and could extend that by another day by using low power mode. This is a big deal for me as it means I don’t have to worry about charging when I take the Watch on a weekend trip.

New heart rate monitoring system

The biggest hardware change on both the Watch Ultra 4 and Apple Watch Series 12 is the completely new Health Sensing System, which includes a new optical and electrical heart sensor. It can take heart rate measurements far more frequently throughout the day, thereby collecting more data, which is used to calculate metrics such as HRV (heart rate variability), a stress indicator. Apple pointed to a scientific study that singles out this new system as the best among wearables right now.

This new system also paved the way for Readiness, a feature that takes a bunch of data and essentially tells you how well you’re doing and how ready you are to tackle a workout. Readiness takes a week of data to start showing up; I don’t have a score yet, but will add it here as soon as I get that first reading.

Other health-related apps, such as Vitals and Heart Rate, now provide more precise, granular data thanks to the new heart rate monitoring system. One metric I find particularly useful is the ability to see at a glance how quickly your heart rate returns to normal after a hard workout.

The new heart rate monitoring sensors do fire more often, which can be a nuisance while you sleep or in a dark theater. Apple has thought of this, and the sensors will fire less often when the watch is in Theater or Sleep Focus mode.

Step tracking has also been improved, with Apple calling it “the most accurate in any smartwatch.” I’ve been getting slightly lower step counts than on the Apple Watch Series 11, but it’s hard to say whether that’s more accurate than before. I have, however, enjoyed the new Steps complication, which shows me the number of steps I’ve taken today in real-time.

The stuff that’s not here yet

Now we come to the complicated part. The new Apple Watch Ultra 4, as well as Series 12, come with several AI features. These are part of the Audio Intelligence suite of features, enabled by the new S11 chip, which includes four new features: improved Shazam, Sound Recognition, Live Rewind, and Siri Recap.

Shazam, which comes in the form of the Music Recognition widget, is simply better at identifying the song playing nearby. I’ve tried it out on numerous songs, even some obscure YouTube remixes, and it recognized them all instantly.

Sound Recognition is primarily aimed at people with hearing impairments, as it can help them recognize important sounds such as sirens, doorbells, or a baby crying.

Those two are live now, but Live Rewind and Siri Recap are coming “later this year.” Live Rewind gives you an AI-powered recap of the last 15 seconds of your life, so you can recall, for example, which menu items the restaurant waiter just listed for you. Siri Recap creates a “high-level summary” of your day.

Apple has pointed out that these don’t store any audio data and are completely private to the user, but they still sound like potential privacy trouble to me. The features are opt-in to you, the user, but they listen to everyone around you, and these people may not always get a chance to opt in or out. Live Rewind does, however, play an audible sound, even if the Watch is on silent, and displays an animation, so that people nearby can see that it’s being used.

We’ll know more about these features when they go live. In Europe, where the privacy rules are pretty strict, it might take a while.

All of the health and fitness data collected by the Watch feeds into the Health app on the iPhone, which has undergone a big redesign. That, however, also isn’t live yet; as I wrap up this text, it just became available in the iOS 27 developer beta. At first glance, I think the new Health app is a huge improvement, as it offers a clearer overview of various aspects of your health, including sleep quality, fitness level, heart health, and overall vital signs. I’ll need more time (and a more finalized version) to assess how well it works, though.

Should you buy it?

Whether you need the new Apple Watch Ultra 4 depends on how you use it. If it’s just a cool watch on your wrist that you sometimes use for workouts, and you don’t require very precise sports metrics, then the old Ultra 3 or even Ultra 2 will continue to serve you well.

If you’re an athlete, especially an endurance athlete, who needs the best battery life and the best heart rate measurement system available, then the Apple Watch Ultra 4 is an essential upgrade, even if you have an older version.

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